Despite the ensuing media stir and calls to Borough Hall the video generated Tuesday, Mayor Mary Lou Hannon said she saw no reason to discipline Kessler, who said he made the video to draw attention to gun rights. Hannon noted he did it on his own time and violated no laws.

"Each member of council, each employee and each citizen is not only entitled to their own political opinions, but also the right to express them," she said in a prepared statement. "We will not take action to quash free speech, whether or not each member of council or any member of council agrees with it."

In the two-minute, 45-second video posted July 15, Kessler doesn't identify himself as police chief. Wearing a black T-shirt and baseball cap, he appears to be apologizing for a previous video in which he used profanities. He disappears from view and comes back with a gun he fires multiple times.

"Yeah, I don't think so. This boy don't roll that way ...," he says on the video. "For all you people out there who cried and cried about, oh, I used profanity, f--- you."

The video shows him leaving the screen and coming back to shoot three different firearms, all the while spewing profanities.

In an interview, Hannon said she understands how the video could appear alarming to those who don't know Kessler, but she believes the borough is safer with him than without him. She described the video, which she and other council members viewed Tuesday morning, as something from "an R-rated movie."

She said the video may generate some borough discussion at its meeting Thursday as to whether some guidelines should be imposed. She declined to go into detail.

In a phone interview from Texas where he is vacationing, Kessler said he couldn't recall which guns were on the video but said he believed they were selective-fire, which has semiautomatic and automatic options. The video appears to show several shots being fired as he holds back the trigger.

A federal permit is required to possess automatic weapons. Military and law enforcement officers can also possess them. Kessler said he had those guns as a law enforcement officer authorized by the mayor. He said he was training, but the video is not related to his job as chief of the one-officer department where he makes $15.25 an hour.

He said he was on private property in the borough where he target-practices.

Kessler said he made the video and other videos to draw attention to efforts to restrict guns. He specifically pointed to public statements that politicians made after the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults died. He called the shooting "a tragedy" but condemned the person who shot the gun, not the gun.

Kessler, the borough's chief for 14 years and a freshman member of the North Schuylkill School Board, said he used profanity to get attention. He said he's gotten thousands of emails over the last two weeks from supporters across the nation.

The YouTube video, which jumped from 3,280 hits late Monday night to nearly 20,000 after mass media reported it Tuesday, is the latest in Kessler's push for gun rights.

He has made a name for himself among gun advocates, often speaking at pro-gun rallies and conservative radio talk shows. He uses a variety of platforms, posting videos of himself on YouTube and audio recordings on Spreaker.com under the title "The Chief Kessler Show."

His lengthy audio messages touch on a wide range of subjects, including his distaste of the Obama administration, which he called corrupt, vindictive and racist, and how he finds it absurd that people in this country illegally are protected under the Constitution.

Kessler has also organized a volunteer group called the Constitutional Security Force. According to the group's website, Chiefkessler.com, the group does not consider itself a militia but will take up arms to protect against tyranny.

In January, Kessler drafted a resolution the borough adopted that calls for "nullifying all federal, state or local acts in violation of the Second Amendment."

Kessler's most recent posting caused a stir around Gilberton, with several stopping by and calling Borough Hall to voice their opinions.

Most people in the Schuylkill County borough of fewer than 800 residents just outside Mahanoy City know Kessler and had a mixed reaction to the video.

"It's not like he's lenient, but he's understanding when he pulls you over for going a few miles above the speed limit," said local mechanic Jeff McCarthy, smiling as he spoke from his own experience. "He does his job, you know, but when you're a cop and part of the school board, you can't go off like that."

Resident William Wetzel also said he knows Kessler from when he's been on duty in the neighborhood — and from when Kessler issued him a speeding ticket.

"He's a little rough around the edges," Wetzel said, "but he doesn't come off as a bad guy. He does his job, gets both sides of every story. I know he's a big gun advocate, but that just part of our freedom."

Charles Hepler, school board president in the North Schuylkill School District, said he had not seen the video. He declined to comment because the board has not had time to review or discuss it.